Logitech Harmony Joins SmartThings Labs

Note: We are in talks with Logitech Harmony to improve this integration and should be releasing changes that greatly enhance its performance and reliability soon. Please stay tuned, and thank you for your patience. – The SmartThings Product team

We’re very excited to announce the newest addition to SmartThings Labs: Logitech Harmony. By combining the power of Harmony and the SmartThings open platform, you can now seamlessly integrate your smart home with your home entertainment system to control and automate 270,000 devices from more than 6,000 brands.

Smart Home Entertainment

This SmartThings Labs integration allows you to control the Harmony activities of your favorite home entertainment devices directly from your SmartThings app. By connecting SmartThings and Harmony, you can initiate Harmony activities via SmartThings triggers. For example:

• Turn on Cable TV When I Return Home
• Turn off the Stereo When I Leave
• Turn on My PlayStation or Xbox When I Change to Game Mode
• …and much more

These on/off Harmony actions can be initiated with the following SmartThings triggers:

• Turn on the local news or the Weather Channel on your TV each morning as you wake up

• Trigger your TV to turn on automatically when you come home from work each day, and to turn off when you leave the house

• Set your Sonos to automatically play a certain station or playlist when you open a door

• If you’ve already set up a SmartThings Movie Time mode (or something similar), you can now also trigger a “Play DVD” activity so that the movie starts playing at the same time as the lights dim.

• Invite David Blaine over to your home. Tell him that because of a magical gift that you’ve been born with, you have the power to turn on your TV, play a movie, or blast the stereo just by moving this here frame on the wall. Move that frame, and blast that stereo. Impress David Blaine. Go on tour with David Blaine. Become best friends with David Blaine.

Setup:

An important note: To access the SmartThings integration, existing Harmony customers will need to upgrade their firmware. Logitech tells us that upgrade will be available in the coming months and that there will be a small fee associated with it. If you have further questions about this forthcoming firmware update, please contact Logitech.

For new Harmony customers, we’ve put together a series of videos guiding you through the setup process.

First, you’ll want to use the Logitech Harmony app to set up your Harmony Hub with SmartThings, like this:

After you’ve set this up, you can follow this video to begin controlling your SmartThings-powered lights and switches using the Harmony app:

Next, you’ll want to use the SmartThings app to set up and trigger different Harmony Activities:

And now you’re all set to begin using SmartThings Labs to integrate your smart home with your home entertainment setup. Ahem… world’s first smart wall-mounted TV, anyone?

What is SmartThings Labs?

SmartThings Labs gives customers access to a curated group of popular third-party devices and services that can work together with SmartThings while they’re still in development. These new product solutions are created by our in-house team, as well as by our growing community of software developers. Together, they make it easier than ever to control all of the connected devices in your home with the SmartThings iOS and Android apps.

As our engineering team works to fine-tune these integrated products and solutions with our platform, they may move from SmartThings Labs into more prominent sections of the SmartThings Dashboard to make way for new integrations and features in Labs. Since Labs is all about experimenting, you may notice that some product features aren’t fully polished yet. If you do experience any performance issues, we’d love to hear your feedback to help improve things–just shoot us a note at support@smartthings.com.

SmartThings Labs is open for all SmartThings customers. To access it, tap the “+” icon at the bottom of the SmartThings Dashboard to go to SmartSetup. Then, scroll to the right to find the “More” category, where SmartThings Labs is located.

I’m confused on one thing. It’s says you will need one of the 3 new “home” products but then says logitech will be releasing an update to existing harmony customers. Does this mean if I have a Logitech ultimate I will be able to use smartthings after the update? Seeing as the home line was just released it doesn’t seem like it means the update will be for that. Any clarification? Cheers j

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Older devices will have a firmware upgrade available but not for a couple months from what we have been told.

Rick L.

From what I read on the Logitech site, the upgrade will be part firmware part hardware. You will need to purchase an add on for the Hub component (Home Hub Extender). No prices given yet.

The hardware part will allow you to control zwave and zigbee devices for users without the SmartThings hub. If you have a SmartThings hub, you’ll be able to control your zwave/zigbee devices using this integration.

Gilbert Chan

Hi Jamie,
You’ll be able to update your Harmony Ultimate once Logitech provides the opportunity to upgrade your hub to support their new home lineup. At that point, it’s our understanding that your hub will perform all the same functionality as the new lineup. Since you have the ultimate, the controls for light/switched will be on the touchscreen display and you will not need to purchase new hardware to control SmartThings devices from Logitech.

Brandon De Young

This is AWESOME! Sad I only just recently got the Harmony Smart Control, though :( I guess I’ll have to upgrade at Christmas!

Gilbert Chan

Brandon, you can wait for the firmware upgrade program to upgrade your hub instead of buying new hardware. If you want to take full advantage of the system you’ll need to get their new remote with the light controls on the remote, but you can take advantage of firing activities through SmartThings without hardware changes (just need the upcoming firmware update). Logitech will have more details about their firmware update program.

Brandon De Young

Ohhh okay. I saw the part about that but didn’t realize it applied to the Harmony Smart Control that I purchased. Sounds great!! Where do you think the best place to keep an eye out for when the update is available?

You can keep tabs on their blog (http://blog.logitech.com/category/product/digital-home/), but we’ll also try to keep y’all informed with a blog post or tweet once it’s available. Don’t forget to follow us on twitter to stay up to date – some update don’t make it into posts.

Brandon De Young

Hi Gilbert, just thought I’d check in on this. Any idea if my Harmony Smart Control is compatible yet? You mentioned that there would be a firmware update available?

No word yet. We were told not until the end of the year. We’ll be sure to update you guys if we hear firmer dates. I’m waiting for it too.

Brandon De Young

Hi Gilbert, I sent in an inquiry to Logitech about this and this was the response. Any thoughts? I thought the Smart Control unit WOULD have the ability to connect after the firmware update?

“This is Kowjie, and I will be your Technical Support Representative for this case.

I understand that you have an inquiry with regard to pairing your SmartThings to the Logitech Harmony Smart Control. As such, let me help you with this concern.

Brandon, the Smart Control unit cannot be paired with SmartThings or any other home-automated devices. Even with a firmware update, it will not be possible. This only applies to Harmony Home units. However, there are plans but no ETA yet; unfortunately, I would not be able to confirm anything as of this moment yet.”

I’ve been talking to the product team at Logitech, and in multiple instances, they said it would be available for the SmartControl Remotes at a later point. I doubt that information trickled down to tech support until it’s ready to be released. Then again, there’s always a small chance that decisions change. I’ll continue to ask for updates.

If you have an old harmony hub, you may be able to discover it using the Logitech Harmony connect app. It will search your LAN for harmony hubs; I was able to add my harmony (non-home) to SmartThings. I can now fire logitech harmony activities using SmartThings devices.

Brandon De Young

Hey Gilbert, after seeing your post last night I ran a “sync” in the app for my Smart Control hub in case there was a newer firmware, then went into Edit Devices/Activities, then into Devices to add the new Home Control device but when tapping on the Home Control category it only drops down Philips Hue. I don’t see SmartThings listed in there still. Thoughts?

You won’t be able to find SmartThings in the Harmony app unless you have the home hub. This is meant for Harmony to control ST devices. This part of the integration isn’t available (yet at least).

However, you may be able to start Harmony activities using SmartThings devices. You need to go into SmartSetup (the plus icon on the dashboard) and search for Harmony Connect, then use Harmony Trigger to setup your devices to trigger harmony.

Brandon De Young

Ohhh right. I forgot about being able to integrate the two from the SmartThings end, as well. I’ll try that out tonight. Thanks!

Brandon De Young

So I went into SmartThings, pressed the (+), went to “More”, pressed SmartThings Labs, then down to “Allows you to integrate your Logitech Harmony…”. The first step to install this SmartApp asks you to select which Harmony Hub. However, it’s only showing one hub in my list. I have two.

I went ahead with the only one listed and tried to complete the install. When I tried clicking the Done button to complete it an error came up at the top saying “Error: An unexpected error occurred.” I presume this is happening because I already have this particular hub Authorized with SmartThings from with the Harmony app. In other words, my second (Smart Control) hub is not showing up in the list.

Thoughts?

Chris Sanner

no, it’s not saying it because you have two, it’s saying that because it’s all broken right now.

Brandon De Young

Hmmm, so do you think I should have seen both hubs show up in the list (including the Smart Control hub)?

Chris Sanner

yep, I do.

Brandon De Young

@disqus_PCI1HbjOBD:disqus, any ideas what’s up? Chris says I should be seeing both of my Harmony hubs listed while trying to install the “Allows you to integrate your Logitech Harmony…” app in SmartThings, but I’m not seeing my Smart Control hub.

I am very interested in the comment about being able to see the Smart Control hub (even when things were working). As far as I know, the Smart Control hub needs a firmware update from Logitech to support home control. This has been promised but not (as far as I can tell) been released yet. If you have information to the contrary, please share! We got a Smart Control hub over the holidays to replace an old failing Logitech remote, hoping that Logitech will release an update as promised, to make it compatible with SmartThings.

Topher

Any updates?

DanielCCM

I’ve currently got a Harmony One… I suppose it won’t be compatible right?

Also.. I’m thinking that I’ve got way more devices than the 8-15 that the mentioned remotes control.. Lights, media center, 4 blinds and 4 curtains in the living room alone…

Unfortunately the Harmony One won’t be upgradable (at least not with a firmware update). You’ll need to have a Harmony that uses the hub.

The 8 devices that they limit does not include all your SmartThings devices. So although you may have a limit on the number of HT devices you have, the number of lights and switches you may want to bring in is not limited (although the simple remote only has four buttons so you may need to group them in harmony to control all of your switches).

What kind of automated blinds/curtains are you using?

DanielCCM

Hey! Thanks for the info! Best news I could have for a wake up call! Lol! I’m still in the setting up stage… Still haven’t decided in the blinds… Here in Europe somfy hasn’t released the ZRTSI device… I

Andy

This is great. Thanks for posting the Logitech blog link, I found that they have $100 trade-in credit promo right now – I’m going to pickup the Ultimate.
Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish: I’ve got a minimote and will program a button so that when I go into the HT room, the Harmony hub will have already turned on the projector, receiver, etc; lights will dim to 25%; temp will increase a couple degrees (since it’s a basement), and toggle “movie mode”, so if my kids wake up and trigger the motion sensor in upstairs hallway- the lights in the HT room will turn on. I should be able to do this, right?

Yeah, you might need several SmartApps to create the experience you’ve outline. 1. The minimote can trigger the hello home phrase “Movie Mode”. That hello home phase can be configured to set your lights, thermostats and mode change. 2. In addition, you’ll configure your Trigger Logitech Harmony Activities SmartApp to initiate your “Play Movie” Harmony Activity (which turns on your components and sets the appropriate inputs). 3. There’s many ways you can make the light turn back on to 100% if there’s motion upstairs (hello home phrase, lights and switches SmartApp, or something community submitted).

It’s probably better to leave it to the guys that have been doing it for years and for us to focus on our platform. Logitech makes some great products, and anything we create will not be nearly as impressive and expansive (covering 270k devices). We can’t do it all, but can leverage the strengths of all these connected devices to work in “harmony” with one another (at least that’s what we’re reaching for).

Good point! I just get worried with some of the integrations. As a platform for controlling Z-Wave products, it’s awesome, but the integrations I have used, Hue, Dropcam, Sonos, have been lukewarm and unreliable. I actually end up using the native apps, which defeats the purpose of the integration. I worry that it will be the same with Logitech’s Harmony.

Topher

Anyone have any idea what the fee to upgrade might be. We talking a few bucks. Or like 20 bucks.

Endo

First off the integration works really well going from Harmony to Smart Things. Sadly, I’m not able to see anything in Smart Things to control the Harmony (ie. none of my activities are showing up). I’ve got the Ultimate Home version if that clears anything up.

James Nguyen

Hi, i’m a total noob to home automation so please excuse my noob questions as i do my research. I am about to finally automate my home. I was told that smartthings was great, but didn’t have traditional AV control. But this pairing with logitech seems to do the trick!

From my limited knowledge, i believe that logitech ultimate seems to do a lot of the things that smartthings does in terms of locks, windows, nest, lights, and it also does AV, which smartthings does not.

Question: why should i get smartthings if there is a decent amount of overlap with harmony? sorry, this is not a criticism, but more a question of ‘what am i missing that smarttings does that makes it worthwhile to get smartthings + harmony’?

thanks in advance!!

Bradley Dunlap

So I am wondering which harmony remote would be best to integrate easiest. Been using logitech for years but not sure what the benefits of each remote are in regards to ST as well as how this actually gets installed with ST. Can you use IFTTT to give you remote control functions to actually control your ST activities?

spike mike

So I went an purchased an ultimate harmony home and setup my smartthings. first thing I realize is when you turn a light on using harmony, smartthings doesn’t know. Similar to tcp app.
When attempting to do the reverse, control my harmoney through smartthings, I can’t connect. Seems i’ve been fambusled into a “not quite ready” gadget.. again.

I assumed, if smartthings has the “harmony connect” app in the “store”, it would work.

Has anyone heard when it might be fixed. No since in using the harmony to control devices, if smartthings doesnt see the actions. turn a light on using harmony, smartthings isn’t smart enough to know it was turned on, making motion and other actions break.

Zoriontsu

Connectivity between ST and Harmony Hub remains broken. What are the plans to fix this?